Social Games in Asia(aka Where Facebook is Not Yet King)

James Gwertzman

VP Asia/Pacific

james@popcap.com

Facebook Usage(as % of population)

(source: www.nickburcher.com; visualized with OpenHeatMap)

JapanChina

Korea

TaiwanIndia

Australia

Facebook Usage(as % of population)

(source: www.nickburcher.com; visualized with OpenHeatMap)

Philippines

Malaysia

Indonesia

Thailand

Vietnam

Korea

Thailand

India

Facebook Growth(2010 vs. 2009)

(source: www.nickburcher.com; visualized with OpenHeatMap)

High DAU; Low ARPU

Heavily regulated(esp. for foreign companies)

China Market Overview

Many competing platforms

Predominately PC focused

China SNS marketRenRen.comQZone

Sina Space51.com

Kaixin001.comSohu

Douban.com139.com (mobile)

Kaixin.comOther

User behaviorsChina’s platforms

Stealing

Facebook

Cooperating

Art styleChina Facebook

Viral feedsQZone No app feeds

RenRen

App Feeds

App Invites

App DiscoveryQZone RenRen

App Directory

Ads

App Directory

Banner Ads

Platform currencyQZone

QB

RenRen

RenRen Beans

Happy Tower“Farmville meets Cake Mania”

Manage a shop

Service your customers

Steal from your friends

DAU: 15M

ARPU: $.005 / DAU

Monthly revenue: $2.5M

1.Rent a floor to open a shop

2.Serve guests and get coins

3.Spend coins to upgrade and expand

4.Steal coins and guests from friends

5.Finish daily tasks for bonus rewards

Core Mechanic

(2)

(1) (4)

(5)

Business Model

Buy items to:

Attract more customers

Shorten service time

Improve customer satisfaction

Viral Growth

Friend invites

Fantasy Seabed

Business model

Buy items to:

Shorten growth time

Extend harvest time

Buy special fish

Viral Growth

Friend Invites

Little War Grow, decorate village

Make war on others

Build magic powers

Prank friends

Business Model

Buy:

Building materials

Magic energy

Special decorations

Shorten growth time

Viral Growth

Friend invites

Form feeds

High (US$2-$3) ARPU

Limited social features:activity feeds,

messaging, avatars

Japan Market Overview

Mobile Phone (“Gala-kei”) Implementations

GREE vs DENA : Feature Phone

More competitive games

Top 5, all from DeNA / 8 DeNA titles in Top 10

More like Nintendo

Dragon Collection

100 Mannin No Sangokushi

Omiseyasan

1

2

3

4

5

Love&Job! Otona No Jijyou

Shirotsuku

As of Feb 7, 2011

Kaitou Royale

Nouen Hokkorina

Kaizoku Treasure

Hoshitsuku

El Ark

As of Feb 11, 2011

• More collaborative games

• Few titles from GREE

• Titles related to “love” and “boy” are popular

• More like Sony Computer Entertainment

Dragon Collection

Card collection and battle game

Popular with women as men

Kaitou Royale “Mafia Wars” style RPG

“Mafia Wars” not popular in Japan

Released as “Bandit Nation” in US; not especially successful

100 Mannin no sangokushi

“Strategy RPG” game

Reunify ancient China

Simple battle mechanics; no real fight interaction

Nouen Hokkorina

Farming game

Omiseyasan Shopkeeper game

Visit friends’ shops, etc

Kaizoku Treasure

Seafaring Pirates

Ship Battles

Treasure hunting

Love & Job!Otona no jijyou

Life drama game Main character works in nail salon At the turning point of your life,

choose between love and job! Pay per-episode model

Hoshitsuku

Planet-building game Develop the culture on your planet Spend energy to go to other players’

planets and find items Use found items to boost your culture

GREE vs DENA : SMARTPHONE

Web based

Flash Emulator

Native App

calls GREE API

In service nowFlash emulationOriginal web browserNative apps for Gree API

To be launched on April Using NG moco’s engine“ngCore”, which is Android-iPhone cross-platform capable

China Japan US

Yabagewith Yahoo! PC

Mobage WAP

WAPTXSmartphone

with tx.com.cn

MobageSmartphonewith ngmoco

Plus+ Networkwith ngmoco Smartphone

China Japan US

PCNo Game but simple SNS

WAP GREE

Smartphone

GREEplatform for Smartphonewith Tencent

GREEplatform for Smartphone

GREE platform for Smartphoneas GREE USA

GREE vs DENA : PC SOCIAL

Focusing on smartphone, not PC

Partnering with Yahoo (Yabage) to go after PC

App Discovery & Virality

Discovery through promotion or charts(new, top selling, recommended)

Virality limited to activity feeds & messaging

Low click-through on game-related invites (25%)

Q4 2010 Mobile & PC trends

Q42010

Mobile

PC

SN

S m

ark

et

in J

ap

an

mixi mobile

mobage

Ameba mobile

Minutes spentReach rate Average PV

Yabage

Ameba pigg

Hangame

Minutes spentReach rate Average PV

Q42010 ARPU

Q42010

Ad ARPU Item ARPU

(Unit: JPY)

Mobage

SN

S m

ark

et

in J

ap

an

Western Companies Competing in AsiaZynga China: purchased Beijing social game studio (XPD); developing primarily for

Facebook Japan: $150M Softbank investment,; bought 120 people studio (Unoh); launched

Farmville on Mixi platform (PC); working on mobile titles

Crowdstar Partnership with Drecom in Japan to launch social titles on mobile

EA Growing Playfish Beijing studio; opening iPhone studio in Beijing; planning to

enter China market

PopCap Built 80 person Shanghai studio; partnering in Japan, Korea, China Announced social-mobile “PopTower” project for Japan

Predictions…

<$100 Android handsets

Huge competition on social/mobile in China

Facebook will partner to enter China

Questions?